Trading Volume for Bakkt’s Bitcoin Futures Hit Just $5 Million in First Week

The Intercontinental Exchange’s highly anticipated bitcoin futures contract mustered just $5 million of total trading – and its daily product traded fewer than five contracts across its first week. According to the exchange’s Bakkt division, set up last year by the Atlanta-based company as a new marketplace for digital assets, some 623 monthly bitcoin futures contracts changed hands last week. Both the monthly and daily contracts debuted on Sept. 23.

Each of Bakkt’s futures contracts represents one bitcoin, so the total trading volume works out to just over $5 million, based on the current price of $8,322. By comparison, some 4,099 bitcoin futures contracts traded on Friday alone at rival Chicago-based exchange operator CME, whose market opened in 2017. And the CME’s futures contracts represent five bitcoins, for a trading volume of $165 million on the single day.

Dave Weisberger, CEO of CoinRoutes, a New York-based company that helps investors route cryptocurrency trades to various exchanges, says that bitcoin investors currently in the market already have plenty of places to buy and sell, but it’s too early to write off Bakkt’s new push, he said in a phone interview.